Link between justice and addiction, mental health probed

A public health meeting will take place on Thursday morning, delving into the links between justice and health.

Hāpai Te Hauora CEO Lance Norman says 90 percent of prisoners have an addiction or mental health issue, and a big part of the meeting will be how to work across all sectors.

"The big point of discussion will be how we look across all of the health, justice, social and education sectors," he told Newshub.

Mr Norman says they will also look at closing the inequality gap between Māori and non-Māori.

He believes the funding is too broad and needs to be specifically targeted on certain issues.

"The Government tends to do population based funding which impacts everybody for health improvement but to address the issue that we have we actually need specific needs based funding to address those particular issues."